Today is Saturday, May 24, the 144th day of 2025. There are 221 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 24,1883, New York’s Brooklyn Bridge, at the time the world’s longest suspension bridge, opened to traffic.

Also on this date:

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line.

In 1935, the first Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

In 1937, in a pair of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

In 1941, during World War II, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board. (The Bismarck would be sunk by British battleships three days later.)

In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard the Aurora 7 spacecraft.

In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.

In 1994, four Islamic extremists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

In 2022, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, was also killed. It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. elementary school since the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Comedian Tommy Chong is 87.
• Musician Bob Dylan is 84.
• Actor Gary Burghoff (M*A*S*H) is 82.
• Singer Patti LaBelle is 81.
• Actor Priscilla Presley is 80.
• Actor Jim Broadbent is 76.
• Cinematographer Roger Deakins is 76.
• Actor Alfred Molina is 72.
• Musician Rosanne Cash is 70.
• Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 65.
• Author Michael Chabon is 62.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Joe Dumars is 62.
• Actor John C. Reilly is 60.
• Basketball Hall of Famer Tracy McGrady is 46.
• Dancer-choreographer Mark Ballas is 39.
• Country singer Billy Gilman is 37.
• Rapper G-Eazy is 36.
• Actor Brianne Howey is 36.
• Actor Daisy Edgar-Jones is 27.

BY MATTHEW LEE, AAMER MADHANI and SEUNG MIN KIM

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is ordering a massive overhaul of the National Security Council that will shrink its size and return many career appointees back to their home agencies, according to two U.S. officials and one person familiar with the reorganization.

The move is expected to significantly reduce the number of staff at the NSC, according to the officials, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive personnel matter. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been serving as national security adviser since early this month following the ouster of Mike Waltz, who was nominated to serve as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.

The NSC has been in a continual state of tumult for much of the early going of Trump’s second go-around in the White House.

Waltz was ousted weeks after Trump said that he’d fired several NSC officials, just a day after far-right activist Laura Loomer raised concerns directly to him about staff loyalty.

The White House days into the administration sidelined about 160 NSC aides, sending them home while the administration reviewed staffing and tried to align it with Trump’s agenda. The aides were career government employees, commonly referred to as detailees.

This latest shakeup amounts to a “liquidation” of NSC staffing with both career government detailees on assignment to the NSC being sent back to their home agencies and several political appointees being fired from their positions, according to the person familiar with the decision.

A White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed that the overhaul, first reported by Axios, was underway but declined further comment.

By TARA COPP

WASHINGTON (AP) — Military air traffic controllers lost contact with an Army helicopter for about 20 seconds as it neared the Pentagon on the flight that caused two commercial jets to abort their landings this month at a Washington airport, the Army told The Associated Press on Friday.

The aborted landings on May 1 added to general unease about continued close calls between government helicopters and commercial airplanes near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport following a deadly midair collision in January between a passenger jet and an Army helicopter that killed 67 people.

In March, the Federal Aviation Administration announced that helicopters would be permanently restricted from flying on the same route where the collision occurred. After the May 1 incident, the Army paused all flights into and out of the Pentagon as it works with the FAA to address safety issues.

Brig. Gen. Matthew Braman, the head of Army aviation, told the AP in an exclusive interview that the controllers lost contact with the Black Hawk because a temporary control tower antenna was not set up in a location where it would be able to maintain contact with the helicopter as it flew low and rounded the Pentagon to land. He said the antenna was set up during construction of a new control tower and has now been moved to the roof of the Pentagon.

Braman said federal air traffic controllers inside the Washington airport also didn’t have a good fix on the location of the helicopter. The Black Hawk was transmitting data that should have given controllers its precise location, but Braman said FAA officials told him in meetings last week that the data the controllers were getting from multiple feeds and sensors was inconclusive, with some of it deviating by as much as three-quarters of a mile.

“It certainly led to confusion of air traffic control of where they were,” Braman said.

Former FAA and NTSB crash investigator Jeff Guzzetti said he thinks the air traffic controller did the right thing by ordering the two planes to go around that day.

“The Army, to me, seems to be attempting to sidestep some of their responsibility here. And it just sounds like excuses to say ‘Hey, we had our ADS-B on and that should have been enough for them to see where we were.’ That sounds too simplistic to me,” Guzzetti said.

The FAA declined to comment on whether its controllers could not get a good fix on the Black Hawk’s location due to their own equipment issues, citing the ongoing investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is pushing to have the agency modernize its air traffic control systems and equipment, which has failed controllers responsible for Newark Liberty Internal Airport’s airspace at critical moments in recent weeks.

In the initial reporting on the aborted landings, an FAA official suggested the Army helicopter was on a “scenic route.”

But the ADS-B-Out data, which the Army shared with the AP on Friday, shows the crew hewed closely to its approved flight path — directly up the I-395 highway corridor, which is called Route 5, then rounding the Pentagon.

FAA air traffic controllers at the airport aborted the landing of a Delta Air Lines Airbus A319 during the Black Hawk’s initial flight toward the Pentagon because they realized both aircraft would be nearing the Pentagon around the same time, Braman said.

Because of the 20-second loss of contact, the Pentagon’s tower did not clear the Black Hawk to land, so the helicopter circled the Pentagon a second time. That’s when air traffic controllers at the airport decided to abort the landing of a second jet, a Republic Airways Embraer E170, because they did not have a confident fix on the Black Hawk’s location, Braman said.

Josh Funk contributed from Omaha, Nebraska.

By REBECCA BOONE

Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture violated federal privacy laws when it ordered states and vendors to turn over five years of data about food assistance program applicants and enrollees, including their names, birth dates, personal addresses and social security numbers.

The lawsuit “seeks to ensure that the government is not exploiting our most vulnerable citizens by disregarding longstanding privacy protections,” National Student Legal Defense Network attorney Daniel Zibel wrote in the complaint. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and Mazon Inc.: A Jewish Response to Hunger joined the four food assistance recipients in bringing the lawsuit.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a social safety net that serves more than 42 million people nationwide. Under the program formerly known as food stamps, the federal government pays for 100% of the food benefits but the states help cover the administrative costs. States also are responsible for determining whether people are eligible for the benefits, and for issuing the benefits to enrollees.

As a result, states have lots of highly personal financial, medical, housing, tax and other information about SNAP applicants and their dependents, according to the lawsuit.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order March 20 directing agencies to ensure “unfettered access to comprehensive data from all state programs” as part of the administration’s effort to stop “waste, fraud and abuse by eliminating information silos.”

That order prompted Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency and the USDA to ask states and electronic benefit vendors to turn over the info earlier this month. Failing to do so may “trigger noncompliance procedures,” the USDA warned in a letter to states.

Some states have already turned over the data, including Alaska, which shared the personal info of more than 70,000 residents, according to the lawsuit. Other states like Iowa plan to turn over the information, the plaintiffs say.

They want a judge to declare the data collection unlawful, to order the USDA to destroy any personal information it already has, and to bar the agency from punishing states that fail to turn over the data.

By ERIC TUCKER

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked another of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting a major law firm, calling it unconstitutional retaliation designed to punish lawyers for their legal work that the White House does not like.

The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Bates marks the second time this month that a judge has struck down a Trump executive order against a prominent firm. The decision in favor of Jenner & Block follows a similar opinion that blocked the enforcement of a decree against a different firm, Perkins Coie.

“Like the others in the series, this order — which takes aim at the global law firm Jenner & Block — makes no bones about why it chose its target: it picked Jenner because of the causes Jenner champions, the clients Jenner represents, and a lawyer Jenner once employed,” Bates wrote.

The spate of executive orders announced by Trump sought to impose the same consequences against the targeted firms, including suspending security clearances of attorneys and barring employees from federal buildings. The orders have been part of a broader effort by the president to reshape American civil society by targeting perceived adversaries in hopes of extracting concessions from them and bending them to his will.

Several of the firms singled out for sanctions have either done legal work that Trump has opposed, or currently have or previously had associations with prosecutors who at one point investigated the president.

In the case of Jenner & Block, the firm previously employed Andrew Weissmann, who served as a prosecutor on special counsel Robert Mueller’s team that investigated ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.

Bates had previously halted enforcement of multiple provisions of the executive order against Jenner & Block and appeared deeply skeptical of its legality during a hearing last month.

In his ruling Friday, he said he was troubled that the orders retaliated against the firms for the “views embodied in their legal work” and seek “to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the Executive Branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers.”

Two other firms, WilmerHale and Susman Godfrey, have also asked judges to permanently halt orders against them.

Other major firms have sought to avert orders by preemptively reaching settlements that require them, among other things, to collectively dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in free legal services in support of causes the Trump administration says it supports.

By SOPHIE BATES

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — President Donald Trump green-lit disaster relief for eight states on Friday, assistance that some of the communities rocked by natural disasters have been waiting on for months.

The major disaster declaration approvals allow Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas access to financial support through the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Several states requested the aid in response to damage from a massive storm system in mid-March.

“This support will go a long way in helping Mississippi to rebuild and recover. Our entire state is grateful for his approval,” said Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves, whose state experienced 18 tornados between March 14 and 15.

Mississippi residents in the hard-hit Walthall County expressed frustration earlier this month over how long they had been waiting for federal help. The county’s emergency manager said debris removal operations stalled in early May when the county ran out of money while awaiting federal assistance.

Earlier this week Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem vowed to expedite Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe’s request for disaster assistance, after being pressed on the issue by U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican.

“That is one of the failures that FEMA has had in the past is that people who incur this kind of damage and lose everything sit there for months and sometimes years and never get the promised critical response that they think or that they believe they should be getting from the federal government,” Noem said.

Trump has pointed to wait times as one reason he’s looking to make major changes to the agency. FEMA’s newly-appointed acting chief has said he plans to push more responsibility for disaster response and recovery onto states.

FEMA did not immediately respond to questions about what prompted the flurry of approvals.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Belgium’s Royal Palace said Friday that Princess Elisabeth, who is first in line to the throne, is waiting to find out whether she can return to Harvard for her second year after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a ban on foreign students at the university.

The Trump administration on Thursday revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students in its escalating battle with the Ivy League school, saying thousands of students must transfer to other schools or leave the country.

“We are looking into the situation, to see what kind of impact this decision might have on the princess, or not. It’s too early to say right now,” said the palace’s communications head, Xavier Baert.

Baert said that Princess Elisabeth, aged 23, has completed her first year of a graduate school program at Harvard and would spend the summer back in Belgium. “And we’ll have to see what happens next year,” he said.

The princess is the first of four children born to King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, and has been studying for a Master in Public Policy. Last year, she obtained a degree in history and politics at Lincoln College at Oxford in the U.K.

Harvard enrolls almost 6,800 foreign students at its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, accounting for more than a quarter of its student body. Most are graduate students, coming from more than 100 countries.

The university filed a lawsuit on Friday in federal court in Boston, saying that the Trump administration’s action violates the First Amendment and will have an “immediate and devastating effect for Harvard and more than 7,000 visa holders.”

Christopher Schurr fatally shot the Congolese immigrant in the back of the head after a tumultuous traffic stop. Schurr’s trial ended with a hung jury.

The post Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers appeared first on WDET 101.9 FM.

Today is Thursday, May 22, the 142nd day of 2025. There are 223 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On May 22, 1960, the strongest earthquake recorded struck southern Chile. The magnitude 9.5 quake claimed 1,655 lives, left 2 million homeless and triggered a tsunami responsible for over 230 additional deaths in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Also on this date:

In 1939, the foreign ministers of Germany and Italy, Joachim von Ribbentrop and Galeazzo Ciano, signed a “Pact of Steel” committing their two countries to a military and political alliance.

In 1962, Continental Airlines Flight 11, en route from Chicago to Kansas City, Missouri, crashed near Unionville, Missouri, after a passenger ignited dynamite on board the plane, killing all 45 occupants of the Boeing 707.

In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson, speaking at the University of Michigan, outlined the goals of his “Great Society,” saying that it “rests on abundance and liberty for all” and “demands an end to poverty and racial injustice.”

In 1969, the lunar module of Apollo 10, with Thomas P. Stafford and Eugene Cernan aboard, flew within nine miles of the moon’s surface in a “dress rehearsal” for the first lunar landing.

In 1985, U.S. sailor Michael L. Walker was arrested aboard the aircraft carrier Nimitz, two days after his father, John A. Walker Jr., was apprehended by the FBI; both were later convicted of spying for the Soviet Union. (Michael Walker served 15 years in prison and was released in 2000; John Walker Jr. died in prison in 2014.)

In 1992, after a reign lasting nearly 30 years, Johnny Carson hosted his final episode of NBC’s “Tonight Show.” (Jay Leno took over as host three days later.)

In 2011, a massive EF5 tornado struck Joplin, Missouri, with winds up to 250 mph, killing at least 159 people and destroying about 8,000 homes and businesses.

In 2017, a suicide bomber set off an improvised explosive device that killed 22 people and injured over 1,000 following an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England.

Today’s Birthdays:

• Actor-filmmaker Richard Benjamin is 87.
• Songwriter Bernie Taupin is 75.
• Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is 68.
• Singer Morrissey is 66.
• Singer Johnny Gill (New Edition) is 59.
• Actor Brooke Smith is 58.
• Model Naomi Campbell is 55.
• Actor Sean Gunn is 51.
• Actor Ginnifer Goodwin is 47.
• Actor Maggie Q is 46.
• Olympic speed skating gold medalist Apolo Anton Ohno is 43.
• Tennis player Novak Djokovic is 38.
• Actor Peyton Elizabeth Lee is 21.

By WYATTE GRANTHAM-PHILIPS and JONATHAN J. COOPER, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s “no tax on tips” pledge became a catchphrase for his 2024 campaign. Now it’s inching closer to reality.

The idea is firmly planted in the sprawling tax cuts package Republicans are hashing out in the House and aiming to pass in the coming days. And in a surprise move, the Senate voted this week to unanimously approve the idea.

The proposal has widespread support from the public, lawmakers in both parties and employers who believe such a law will bring relief to the working class. But many critics say that it would come with an enormous cost to the government while doing little to help the workers who need it most.

Here’s a look at the proposal and its potential impact:

What’s in the ‘No Tax on Tips’ provision?

It would create a new tax deduction eliminating federal income taxes on tips for people working in jobs that have traditionally received them, as long as they make less than $160,000 in 2025. The Trump administration would publish a list of qualifying occupations within 90 days of the bill’s signing.

Only tips reported to the employer and noted on a worker’s W-2, their end-of-year tax summary, would qualify. Payroll taxes, which pay for Social Security and Medicare, would still be collected.

If adopted, the proposed deduction is set to expire after four years. Congressional budget analysts project the provision would increase the deficit by $40 billion through 2028. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group, projects the cost would be $120 billion over a decade if the tip exemption is made permanent.

What did Trump say during the campaign about eliminating federal taxes on tips?

Trump made the promise during a campaign stop in Las Vegas, where the service sector drives the economy, as part of his pitch to working-class voters struggling with rising costs.

Segments of his base eagerly spread the word, writing the catchphrase on their restaurant receipts or talking to their barbers about it while getting a trim.

Trump offered few details at the time, but later made similar pledges to eliminate taxes on other forms of income, including overtime wages and Social Security payments. Those ideas, along with a tax deduction for auto loan interest, are also included in the GOP’s budget bill.

“No tax on tips” was later embraced — with limits — by the influential Culinary Union, which represents Las Vegas Strip hospitality workers, Nevada’s Democratic senators and Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival.

How could it impact workers?

Experts say some middle-income service workers would benefit from a tax break but warn that it could potentially heighten inequities.

“If your goal is to help the poorest service workers, this is probably not the way to do it,” said Michael Lynn, a professor of services marketing at Cornell University whose research largely focuses on tipping and other consumer behavior.

About a third of tipped workers make too little to owe income taxes. Those workers won’t benefit from the tax break, so its benefits will accrue to tipped workers with higher incomes, Lynn said.

“It’s overlooking non-tipped workers who need the help just as badly, and it’s giving the benefit predominantly to the least needy of the tipped workers,” Lynn said.

The median age for tipped workers is 31, a decade younger than the median non-tipped worker, and they tend to make lower wages, according to the Yale Budget Lab.

Among tipped workers who make enough to owe Uncle Sam, the average tax cut would be about $1,800, according to the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center.

The measure also would be complicated to enact.

What do employers say?

The National Restaurant Association is among industry groups that have been strong backers of a “No Tax on Tips” provision. When reached for comment Wednesday, a spokesperson pointed The Associated Press to a previous statement following the legislation’s introduction in January.

“Eliminating taxes on tips would put cash back in the pocket of a significant number of workers in the restaurant and food service industry and could help restaurant operators recruit industry workforce,” Sean Kennedy, executive vice president of public affairs for the association, said at the time — calling the No Tax on Tips Act “sensible legislation” that he said includes “fiscally responsible” protections.

And in Nevada, the Culinary Workers Union specifically credited the state’s two Democratic senators, Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, with working with Republicans to push the legislation forward — and called on the House to “get this done for working families.” The union represents about 60,000 casino and hotel workers across the state, including bartenders, food servers and cocktail servers who rely on tips.

But other groups representing workers shared criticism of the legislation.

One Fair Wage, an advocacy group made up of nearly 300,000 service workers and over 1,000 restaurant employers pushing to raise the minimum wage, said the measure would offer “moderate relief for some” but is part of a tax package that “just helps the richest while leaving the vast majority behind.”

“For all the bipartisan celebration … this bill is a distraction from the real fight,” Saru Jayaraman, president of One Fair Wage, stated — again stressing that it was time to raise the minimum wage. The nonprofit also calls for ending tip credits that allow lower base wages for tipped workers in many states.

Cooper reported from Phoenix. AP Writer Rio Yamat contributed to this report from Las Vegas.

By ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press

With just weeks to go until New York City’s mayoral primary, one of the leading candidates, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, finds himself under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. He seems to think it might actually help.

In a new advertisement released Wednesday, the Cuomo campaign seized on the investigation as a potential selling point to voters, calling it an attempt by the Trump administration to “interfere with New York City’s election.”

“Why? Because Andrew Cuomo is the last person they want as mayor,” the ad says. “If Donald Trump doesn’t want Andrew Cuomo as mayor, you do.”

It added that Cuomo would be a mayor who stood up to “bullies.”

The investigation, confirmed to The Associated Press Tuesday by a person familiar with the matter, is centered on the truthfulness of statements Cuomo made to Congress last year about his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as it spread through nursing homes. The person was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In other times, revelations so close to an election that a major candidate was the subject of a criminal probe might mean political doom.

But while some of Cuomo’s opponents in the Democratic primary pounced, accusing the former governor of perjury during his Congressional testimony, others said they were disturbed by what they characterized as the political weaponization of federal law enforcement.

The Justice Department recently launched an investigation of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has battled Trump in civil court, over paperwork related to a home she helped a relative buy in Virginia. It filed criminal charges against a Democratic member of Congress for jostling with federal agents as they arrested the Democratic mayor of Newark, New Jersey outside an immigration detention center. The Secret Service interviewed former F.B.I. director James B. Comey about a message critical of Trump that he posted on social media.

Trump’s Justice Department also scuttled a criminal case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams — a Trump ally on immigration policy.

Zohran Mamdani, a Democratic state lawmaker who is running for mayor, said that while he believed Cuomo had lied to Congress, “Donald Trump cannot be trusted to pursue justice.”

“While I believe New Yorkers should reject the disgraced ex-Governor at the ballot box, the Trump administration’s actions are dangerous,” Mamdani said in a statement.

Cuomo questioned over handling of report about nursing home deaths

Cuomo, who touts his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic on the campaign trail, has been dogged by a short-lived state directive that temporarily prevented nursing homes from refusing to accept patients recovering from the virus. The policy, intended to help alleviate hospital overcrowding, was reversed after criticism that it might accelerate virus outbreaks in nursing homes.

Amid the scrutiny, Cuomo’s administration substantially understated deaths in nursing homes in its public reports for several months, fueling more criticism that it was engaged in a cover-up.

Cuomo was grilled on the subject by a congressional panel last year, with the group saying it had evidence that Cuomo had reviewed, edited and drafted parts of a state health department report on nursing home deaths. Cuomo told the panel he was not involved in the report, but then later said he did not recall being involved.

The panel referred Cuomo to the Biden administration’s Justice Department for criminal prosecution over accusations that he lied to Congress, but no charges were brought. Months later, Republican Rep. James Comer, who chairs the House Oversight Committee, then re-sent the referral to the Justice Department after Trump took office, releasing a statement saying Cuomo “must be prosecuted.”

Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said in an email that “Governor Cuomo testified truthfully to the best of his recollection about events from four years earlier, and he offered to address any follow-up questions from the Subcommittee — but from the beginning this was all transparently political.”

The Justice Department has declined to comment. Jeanine Pirro, who has been a harsh critic of Cuomo’s pandemic nursing home response from her perch as a Fox News host, was recently appointed as the new leader of the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington. Pirro had unsuccessfully challenged Cuomo in a 2006 state attorney general race.

Probe may not change many people’s votes, former party leader says

Basil Smikle, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party, predicted that the investigation might not lead to many people changing their votes.

“If you’re a Cuomo voter, you’ve already made up your mind that you’re OK with all of the stuff that’s in his past,” he said. “I don’t know if this changes things much.”

That could change though, he said, if Cuomo were to be charged and it became clear that a criminal case would interfere with his ability to serve as mayor.

Still, the probe has allowed some of Cuomo’s opponents to hammer the former governor for, in their view, being insufficiently critical of Trump on the campaign trail.

“Andrew Cuomo believing he may need a pardon for committing perjury explains his incessant kissing up to Donald Trump,” said city Comptroller Brad Lander, who is running against Cuomo.

The current mayor, Adams, who dropped out of the Democratic primary but is still running for a second term on an independent ballot line, told reporters Wednesday that he wouldn’t comment on the investigation.

“I’m not going to do to him what others did to me,” he said. “I’m going to allow the investigation to take its course.”

By LOLITA C. BALDOR

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered another review of the U.S. military’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, and of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed American troops and Afghans.

President Donald Trump and Hegseth have repeatedly blasted the Biden administration for the withdrawal, which Hegseth said Tuesday was “disastrous and embarrassing.” He said the new review will interview witnesses, analyze the decision-making and “get the truth.”

There have already been multiple reviews of the withdrawal by the Pentagon, U.S. Central Command, the State Department and Congress, which have involved hundreds of interviews and studies of videos, photographs and other footage and data. It’s unclear what specific new information the new review is seeking.

The Abbey Gate bombing during the final days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, and wounded scores more. It triggered widespread debate and congressional criticism, fueled by searing photographs of desperate Afghans trying to crowd into the airport to get out of Kabul, with some clinging to U.S. military aircraft as they were taking off.

A detailed U.S. military review was ordered in 2023 to expand the number of people interviewed, after a Marine injured in the blast said snipers believed they saw the possible bomber but couldn’t get approval to take him out.

The findings, released in 2024, refuted those assertions and concluded that the bombing was not preventable. A congressional review was highly critical of the withdrawal, saying the Biden administration did not adequately prepare for it or for all the contingencies and put personnel in danger.

Others, however, have faulted the State Department for not moving quickly enough to decide on an evacuation, resulting in a rush to get out as the Taliban took control of the country. Critics have also blamed Trump for making a deal with the Taliban in 2020 when he was president to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which decreased the number of forces on the ground as the pullout went on.

Both Trump and then-President Joe Biden wanted an end to the war and U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

The new review will be led by Sean Parnell, the assistant to the secretary of defense for public affairs. He will convene a panel that will provide updates “at appropriate times,” but there is no time frame or deadline for any report, which is very unusual.

By LINDSEY BAHR

Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is getting a bit of a god complex. It’s not exactly his fault after defying death and completing impossible missions time and time again. But in “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” out Friday, there’s a breathlessness to the naïve trust from his growing band of disciples, including the U.S. president (the formerly skeptical Erika Sloane of “Fallout,” played by Angela Bassett ), and Paris (Pom Klementieff), the once delightfully fun maniac assassin who has been reduced to brooding French philosopher. In a series that has often been best when it’s not taking itself too seriously, these dour developments start to feel a little unintentionally silly. And, for at least the first hour, it’s all we have to hang onto.

Perhaps this is part of the point in pitting a human man against a parasitic artificial intelligence set on inciting nuclear extinction, something we’re meant to believe has been brewing in some way since the beginning of the franchise. You can almost see the behind-the-scenes wheels turning: Gravity is kind of a prerequisite when this much is on the line, and when so much pain has been taken to link 30 years and seven movies that were certainly never meant to be connected by anything other than Ethan Hunt.

But we don’t come to “Mission: Impossible” movies for the bigger picture, and definitely not to learn what the rabbit’s foot was in the third movie. We come to be awed by the thrills and Cruise’s execution, whether he’s speeding through Paris on a motorbike, driving one-handed through Rome in a tiny old Fiat, or hanging on the outside of an airbus, or bullet train, or helicopter, or the Burj Khalifa.

And unlike, say, the “Fast & Furious” movies, which long ago jumped the shark, the “Mission” stunts have always felt grounded in some reality and playfulness. It’s not just Cruise’s willingness to tether himself to all forms of high-speed transportation for our enjoyment. His reactions — surprise, panic, doubt — are unparalleled. Ethan Hunt is never too cool to look unsure.

“Final Reckoning,” Christopher McQuarrie’s fourth “Mission” movie in the director’s chair, does deliver two truly unforgettable sequences. One is in a long-defunct submarine at the bottom of the sea that will have you squirming; another involves two classic biplanes careening at 170 miles per hour over lush South African landscapes. Though they may induce vertigo on IMAX, these are the things that make the trip to the theater worth it. But be warned: It takes a good long while of labored exposition, manic flashbacks and Oscar broadcast-ready greatest-hits montages to get there.

McQuarrie, who co-wrote the script with Erik Jendresen, might have learned the wrong lessons from the past decade of overly interconnected franchise filmmaking. Or perhaps it still seemed like the right call when this two-part finale was put into motion seven years ago. Not only does realizing one previously enjoyable character is related to and motivated by a character from the past do little to raise the stakes, it also bogs everything down.

“Final Reckoning” also overstuffs the cast with faces that are almost distracting (like Hannah Waddingham as a U.S. Navy officer, though her American accent is quite good). Maybe it’s overcompensating for the movie’s flesh-and-bone villain Gabriel (Esai Morales), who seems to be there because Ethan needs someone to chase.

There are some fun additions to the lot: “Severance’s” Tramell Tillman as a submarine captain, as well as Lucy Tulugarjuk and Rolf Saxon, for anyone wondering what became of the poor guy in the Langley vault.

Simon Pegg, as the capably flustered tech wiz Benji, is still great, Ving Rhames gets to flex emotionally, and Bassett really makes you believe she’s chosen a U.S. city to destroy as an offering to “The Entity.” But many get lost in the unnatural, one-size-fits-all dialogue, which is especially true in the bizarrely sweaty Situation Room where everyone is always finishing each other’s sentences.

Maybe when you have a larger-than-life movie star, you need larger-than-life character actors. Besides, everyone knows they’re there as side players supporting the Cruise show — no one more so than Hayley Atwell as Grace, the once inscrutable pickpocket turned wide-eyed Madonna supporting and tending to Ethan. The loss of Rebecca Ferguson is acutely felt here.

The “Mission: Impossible” movies, even when they’re mediocre, remain some of the most effortlessly enjoyable cinematic experiences out there, a pure expression of “let’s put on a show.” There’s nothing else quite like it and maybe they’ve earned this self-important victory lap, though it seems to have gone to the characters’ heads.

Saving the showstopper for last will certainly leave audiences exiting the theater on a happy high note. But it’s hard to shake the feeling that in attempting to tie everything together, “Mission: Impossible” lost the plot.

“Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning,” a Paramount Pictures release in theaters Friday, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association for “bloody images, action, brief language, and sequences of strong violence.” Running time: 179 minutes. Two and a half stars out of four.

By JONATHAN J. COOPER

Former President Joe Biden’s “last known” prostate cancer screening was in 2014, and he had never been diagnosed with the disease before last week, his office said Tuesday.

Biden’s aides released the new details about his diagnosis amid intense scrutiny of Biden’s health during his presidency and skepticism that the disease could have progressed to an advanced stage without being detected.

Although Biden’s cancer can possibly be controlled with treatment, it has spread to his bones and is no longer curable.

The brief statement from Biden’s office did not disclose the results of his 2014 PSA blood test. PSA stands for prostate-specific antigen.

“President Biden’s last known PSA was in 2014. Prior to Friday, President Biden had never been diagnosed with prostate cancer,” the statement said in its entirety.

Biden’s cancer was announced on Sunday, prompting a wave of sympathy but also suggestions from some of his critics, including his successor Donald Trump, that the former president and his aides covered up the disease while he was in the White House given the severity of the cancer when it was announced. Tuesday’s statement appeared aimed at tamping down that speculation.

Asked about Biden during an appearance at the White House, Trump said, “it takes a long time to get to that situation” and that he was “surprised that the public wasn’t notified a long time ago.”

“It’s a very sad situation and I feel very badly about it,” Trump said.

A memo from the White House physician released following Trump’s annual physical exam in April listed a normal PSA. Biden’s White House doctor did not include PSA results in the health summaries he released.

Screening with PSA blood tests can lead to unnecessary treatment with side effects that affect quality of life, and guidelines recommend against prostate cancer screening for men 70 and older. Biden is 82.

When caught early, prostate cancer is highly survivable, but it is also the second-leading cause of cancer death in men. About one in eight men will be diagnosed over their lifetime with prostate cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

By MATTHEW LEE and ELLEN KNICKMEYER

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Democratic senators sparred Tuesday over the Trump administration’s foreign policies, ranging from Ukraine and Russia to the Middle East, Latin America, the slashing of the U.S. foreign assistance budget and refugee admissions.

Rubio defended the administration’s decisions to his former colleagues during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing, his first since being confirmed on President Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day.

He said “America is back” and claimed four months of foreign-policy achievements, even as many of them remain frustratingly inconclusive. Among them are the resumption of nuclear talks with Iran, efforts to bring Russia and Ukraine into peace talks and efforts to end the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas.

America’s top diplomat praised agreements with El Salvador and other Latin American countries to accept migrant deportees, saying “secure borders, safe communities and zero tolerance for criminal cartels are once again the guiding principles of our foreign policy.”

He also rejected assertions that massive cuts to his department’s budget would hurt America’s standing abroad. Instead, he said the cuts would actually improve the U.S. reputation internationally.

Hearing opens with a joke, then turns serious

Committee Chairman Jim Risch opened the hearing with praise for Trump’s changes and spending cuts and welcomed what he called the administration’s promising nuclear talks with Iran.

Risch also noted what he jokingly called “modest disagreement” with Democratic lawmakers, who used Tuesday’s hearing to confront Rubio about Trump administration moves.

Ranking Democratic member Jeanne Shaheen argued that the Trump administration has “eviscerated six decades of foreign-policy investments” and given China openings around the world.

“I urge you to stand up to the extremists of the administration,” the New Hampshire senator said.

Other Democrats excoriated the administration for its suspension of the refugee admissions program, particularly while allowing white Afrikaners from South Africa to enter the country.

Some Republicans also warned about drastic foreign assistance cuts, including former Senate leader Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins. They expressed concern that the U.S. is being outmaneuvered by its rivals internationally after the elimination of thousands of aid programs.

“The basic functions that soft power provides are extremely important,” McConnell told Rubio at a second hearing later in the day before the Senate Appropriations Committee. “You get a whole lot of friends for not much money.”

Rubio says the US is encouraging but not threatening Israel on Gaza aid

Rubio told the Appropriations Committee that the Trump administration is encouraging but not threatening Israel to resume humanitarian aid shipments into Gaza.

He said the U.S. is not following the lead of several European countries that have imposed sanctions or warned of actions against Israel amid the dearth of assistance reaching vulnerable Palestinians. However, he said U.S. officials have stressed in discussions with the Israelis that aid is urgently needed for civilians in Gaza who are suffering during Israel’s military operation against Hamas.

“We’re not prepared to respond the way these countries have,” but the U.S. has engaged with Israel in the last few days about “the need to resume humanitarian aid,” Rubio said. “We anticipate that those flows will increase over the next few days and weeks — it’s important that that be achieved.”

And Rubio acknowledged that the administration was approaching foreign governments about taking mass numbers of civilians from Gaza but insisted that any Palestinians leaving would be “voluntary.”

“There’s no deportation,” Rubio said. “We’ve asked countries preliminarily whether they will be open to accepting people not as a permanent solution, but as a bridge to reconstruction” in Gaza.

Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., condemned it as a “strategy of forced migration.”

Also on the Middle East, Rubio said the administration has pushed ahead with attempts to broker a ceasefire in Gaza and promote stability in Syria.

He stressed the importance of U.S. engagement with Syria, saying that otherwise, he fears the interim government there could be weeks or months away from a “potential collapse and a full-scale civil war of epic proportions.”

Rubio’s comments addressed Trump’s pledge to lift sanctions burdening Syria’s new transitional government, which is led by a former militant chief who led the overthrow of the country’s longtime oppressive leader, Bashar Assad, late last year. The U.S. sanctions were imposed under Assad.

Rubio and senators clash over white South Africans entering the country

In two particularly contentious exchanges, Kaine and Van Hollen demanded answers on the decision to suspend overall refugee admissions but to exempt Afrikaners based on what they called “specious” claims that they have been subjected to massive discrimination by the South African government. Rubio gave no ground.

In one tense exchange, Kaine pressed Rubio to say whether there should be a different refugee policy based on skin color.

“I’m not the one arguing that,” Rubio said. “Apparently, you are, because you don’t like the fact they’re white.”

“The United States has a right to pick and choose who we allow into the United States,” he said. “If there is a subset of people that are easier to vet, who we have a better understanding of who they are and what they’re going to do when they come here, they’re going to receive preference.”

He added: “There are a lot of sad stories around the world, millions and millions of people around the world. It’s heartbreaking, but we cannot assume millions and millions of people around the world. No country can.”

By JACQUES BILLEAUD

PHOENIX (AP) — Twenty years ago, when Arizona became frustrated with its porous border with Mexico, the state passed a series of immigration laws as proponents regularly griped about how local taxpayers get stuck paying the education, health care and other costs for people in the U.S. illegally.

Then-Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio gladly took up the cause, launching 20 large-scale traffic patrols targeting immigrants from January 2008 through October 2011. That led to a 2013 racial profiling verdict and expensive court-ordered overhauls of the agency’s traffic patrol operations and, later, its internal affairs unit.

Eight years after Arpaio was voted out, taxpayers in Maricopa County are still paying legal and compliance bills from the crackdowns. The tab is expected to reach $352 million by midsummer 2026, including $34 million approved Monday by the county’s governing board.

While the agency has made progress on some fronts and garnered favorable compliance grades in certain areas, it hasn’t yet been deemed fully compliant with court-ordered overhauls.

Since the profiling verdict, the sheriff’s office has been criticized for disparate treatment of Hispanic and Black drivers in a series of studies of its traffic stops. The latest study, however, shows significant improvements. The agency’s also dogged by a crushing backlog of internal affairs cases.

Thomas Galvin, chairman of the county’s governing board, said the spending is “staggering” and has vowed to find a way to end the court supervision.

“I believe at some point someone has to ask: Can we just keep doing this?” Galvin said. “Why do we have to keep doing this?”

Critics of the sheriff’s office have questioned why the county wanted to back out of the case now that taxpayers are finally beginning to see changes at the sheriff’s office.

Profiling verdict

Nearly 12 years ago, a federal judge concluded Arpaio’s officers had racially profiled Latinos in his traffic patrols that targeted immigrants.

The patrols, known as “sweeps,” involved large numbers of sheriff’s deputies flooding an area of metro Phoenix — including some Latino neighborhoods — over several days to stop traffic violators and arrest other offenders.

The verdict led the judge to order an overhaul of the traffic patrol operations that included retraining officers on making constitutional stops, establishing an alert system to spot problematic behavior by officers and equipping deputies with body cameras.

Arpaio was later convicted of criminal contempt of court for disobeying the judge’s 2011 order to stop the patrols. He was spared a possible jail sentence when his misdemeanor conviction was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2017.

Several traffic-stop studies conducted after the profiling verdict showed deputies had often treated Hispanic and Black drivers differently than other drivers, though the reports stop short of saying Hispanics were still being profiled.

The latest report, covering stops in 2023, painted a more favorable picture, saying there’s no evidence of disparities in the length of stops or rates of arrests and searches for Hispanic drivers when compared to white drivers. But when drivers from all racial minorities were grouped together for analysis purposes, the study said they faced stops that were 19 seconds longer than white drivers.

While the case focused on traffic patrols, the judge later ordered changes to the sheriff’s internal affairs operation, which critics alleged was biased in its decision-making under Arpaio and shielded sheriff’s officials from accountability.

The agency has faced criticism for a yearslong backlog of internal affairs cases, which in 2022 stood around 2,100 and was reduced to 939 as of last month.

Taxpayers pick up the bill

By midsummer 2026, taxpayers are projected to pay $289 million in compliance costs for the sheriff’s office alone, plus another $23 million on legal costs and $36 million for a staff of policing professionals who monitor the agency’s progress in complying with the overhauls.

Galvin has criticized the money spent on monitoring and has questioned whether it has made anyone safer.

Raul Piña, a longtime member of a community advisory board created to help improve trust in the sheriff’s office, said the court supervision should continue because county taxpayers are finally seeing improvements. Piña believes Galvin’s criticism of the court oversight is politically driven.

“They just wrote blank checks for years, and now it makes sense to pitch a fit about it being super expensive?” Piña said.

Ending court supervision

Christine Wee, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney representing the plaintiffs, said the sheriff’s office isn’t ready to be released from court supervision.

Wee said the plaintiffs have questions about the traffic-stop data and believe the internal affairs backlog has to be cleared and the quality of investigations needs to be high. “The question of getting out from under the court is premature,” Wee said.

The current sheriff, Jerry Sheridan, said he sees himself asking the court during his term in office to end its supervision of the sheriff’s office. “I would like to completely satisfy the court orders within the next two years,” Sheridan said.

But ending court supervision would not necessarily stop all the spending, the sheriff’s office has said in court records.

Its lawyers said the costs “will likely continue to be necessary even after judicial oversight ends to sustain the reforms that have been implemented.”

By LINDSAY WHITEHURST

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration appears to have begun deporting people from Myanmar and Vietnam to South Sudan despite a court order restricting removals to other countries, attorneys for the migrants said in court documents.

Immigration authorities may have sent up to a dozen people from several countries to Africa, they told a judge.

Those removals would violate a court order saying people must get a “meaningful opportunity” to argue that sending them to a country outside their homeland would threaten their safety, attorneys said.

The apparent removal of one man from Myanmar was confirmed in an email from an immigration official in Texas, according to court documents. He was informed only in English, a language he does not speak well, and his attorneys learned of the plan hours before his deportation flight, they said.

A woman also reported that her husband from Vietnam and up to 10 other people were flown to Africa Tuesday morning, attorneys from the National Immigration Litigation Alliance wrote.

They asked Judge Brian E. Murphy for an emergency court order to prevent the deportations. Murphy, who was appointed by President Joe Biden, previously found that any plans to deport people to Libya without notice would “clearly” violate his ruling, which also applies to people who have otherwise exhausted their legal appeals. A hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.

The Department of Homeland Security and the White House did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

Some countries do not accept deportations from the United States, which has led the Trump administration to strike agreements with other countries, including Panama, to house them. The Trump administration has sent Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador under an 18th-century wartime law hotly contested in the courts.

South Sudan has suffered repeated waves of violence since gaining independence from Sudan in 2011 amid hopes it could use its large oil reserves to bring prosperity to a region long battered by poverty. Just weeks ago, the country’s top U.N. official warned that fighting between forces loyal to the president and a vice president threatened to spiral again into full-scale civil war.

The situation is “darkly reminiscent of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts, which took over 400,000 lives,” Nicholas Haysom, head of the almost 20,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping mission.

The U.S. State Department’s annual report on South Sudan, published in April 2024, says “significant human rights issues” include arbitrary killings, disappearances, torture or inhumane treatment by security forces and extensive violence based on gender and sexual identity.

The U.S. Homeland Security Department has given Temporary Protected Status to a small number of South Sudanese already living in the United States since the country was founded in 2011, shielding them from deportation because conditions were deemed unsafe for return. Secretary Kristi Noem recently extended those protections to November to allow for a more thorough review.

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Tim Sullivan and Elliot Spagat contributed to this report.

By GISELA SALOMON

DORAL, Fla. (AP) — As a business owner in the largest Venezuelan community in the United States, Wilmer Escaray is stressed and in shock. He is unsure what steps he needs to take after the Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump to strip legal protections from hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan immigrants.

Escaray owns 15 restaurants and three markets, most of them in Doral, a city of 80,000 in the Miami area people known as “Little Venezuela” or “Doralzuela.” At least 70% of Escaray’s 150 employees and many of his customers are Venezuelan immigrants with Temporary Protected Status, also known as TPS.

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted a federal judge’s ruling that had paused the administration’s plans to end TPS for 350,000 Venezuelans, potentially exposing them to deportation.

Like many U.S. business owners with Venezuelan employees, Escaray lacks direction. He does not know how long his employees will have legal authorization to work or if he will be able to help them, he said.

“The impact for the business will be really hard,” said Escaray, a 37-year-old Venezuelan American who came to the U.S. to study in 2007 and opened his first restaurant six years later. “I don’t know yet what I am going to do. I have to discuss with my team, with my family to see what will be the plan.”

TPS allows people already in the U.S. to legally live and work here because their native countries are deemed unsafe for return due to natural disaster or civil strife. The Trump administration said immigrants were poorly vetted after the Biden administration dramatically expanded the designation.

Immigration attorney Evelyn Alexandra Batista said the Supreme Court did not specifically address the extension of TPS-based work permits, and some work authorizations remain in effect. She warned, though, that there is no guarantee that they will continue to remain valid because the Supreme Court can change this.

“This means that employers and employees alike should be exploring all other alternative options as TPS was never meant to be permanent,” said Batista, who has received hundreds of calls from TPS beneficiaries and companies looking for advice in the months since Trump returned to office and began his immigration crackdown.

Among the options they are exploring, she said, are visas for extraordinary abilities, investment visas, and agricultural visas.

The American Business Immigration Coalition estimates that TPS holders add $31 billion to the U.S. economy through wages and spending power. There are no specific estimates of the impact of Venezuelans, although they make up the largest percentage of TPS beneficiaries.

They work in hospitality, construction, agriculture, health care, retail, and food services.